yesterday afternoon.

The woman, identified as Ms Carol Morely of Maryland, left her yacht to sink and was taken aboard the motor vessel Cape Douglas , the US Coast Guard reported.

Another ship, the Argonaut , heard the woman's distress signals at about 11.30 p.m. on Sunday and alerted the Coast Guard.

Using a C-130 aircraft sent from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the Coast Guard began a search based on estimates of the range of the radio frequency.

The yacht, which was taking on water, was located 180 miles west northwest of Bermuda. The woman was picked up by the Cape Douglas at about 2 p.m.

The ship was due to arrive at Charleston, North Carolina early tomorrow morning.

The Coast Guard did not know where the woman's voyage originated, but a Harbour Radio spokesman said it was unlikely she set out from Bermuda, since bad weather had been in the area since early on Friday morning.

Since then, winds have averaged 20 to 25 knots with gusts in excess of 30 knots, he said. Some of the worst weather was last night, with seas easily in the range of 12 to 18 feet.

The weather was not unusual for this time of year, but an unusual feature was the high winds stretching 300 miles ahead of a cold front approaching from the west, he said.

Despite the high winds and seas, Harbour Radio reported no other boats in distress last night.

Police and US Navy bomb experts last night detonated about 20 pounds of explosives discovered yesterday at Dockyard.

The marine explosives were found in a shed at Dockyard, where they were appearently stored about eight years ago and inadvertently left there by a commercial business, a Police spokesman said.

"They weren't being stored there for any illegal purpose,'' he said. When discovered, the explosives were not considered an immediate danger, he said.

It was decided to detonate them at Sallyport in Dockyard, rather than transport them across the Island.